One of Ontario’s most iconic, majestic animals is under dire threat.
According to a report last fall from Ontario’s environmental commissioner, moose populations have plunged across the province by 20 per cent. In some areas numbers are down by 50 to 60 per cent.
The reasons are many, according to commissioner Dianne Saxe: “Loss of roadless areas, too much fire suppression, disease, parasites and hunting all (make) life difficult for moose.”
Now, just as the province is making its decision on the 2017 fall moose hunting season, comes a sensible request from the not-for-profit advocacy group Wildlands League: Stop the moose calf hunt.
“It doesn’t make sense — in a population of animals that is declining — that you are taking out the future breeders,” says Wildlands’ Dave Pearce.
He is right. The government should act on the league’s suggestion.
A ban on the moose calf hunt is also supported by some hunters, and it’s a reasonable request. In parts of Manitoba and Minnesota, where moose populations are also in free-fall, the entire moose hunt has been cancelled, Saxe noted earlier.
As things currently stand, it’s hard to believe that moose have any chance at all. There are 98,000 licensed moose hunters in Ontario. That’s more than the number of moose, estimated at 92,300. And every one of those hunters is allowed to kill a calf every year. (Those numbers don’t take into account First Nations hunters, who don’t need a licence.)
In 2014 alone, 3,621 adult moose and 1,429 calves were legally shot and killed by licensed hunters. In other words, at least 5 per cent of Ontario’s moose population was culled in a single year.
Declining moose populations are not just bad for the environment; they also hit First Nations communities hard. Members of northern Ontario’s Nishnawbe-Aski Nation’s 49 communities, for example, have noted the decline in moose available for harvesting, making them dependent on less nutritious processed and frozen foods that are available in remote grocery stores.
In the past, Kathryn McGarry, Ontario’s minister of natural resources and forestry, has taken small steps to try to rein in the moose hunt. In 2015, for example, the province held a shorter moose hunting season in Northern Ontario, and in 2016 it delayed the start of the season.
But if Saxe’s report is any indication, stronger steps are necessary. The province should heed the Wildlands League’s call and stop the killing of moose calves until populations recover.
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